ONE ON ONE: Son Of Town Hall November 15th, 2016 City Winery New York Full Session

  • 5 years ago
Son Of Town Hall (David Berkeley & Ben Parker) sit down for a One On One Session at City Winery New York on November 15th, 2016. For more info visit: https://sonoftownhall.com Audio & Video by: Ehud Lazin

Setlist:
Cobbler's Hill
Louise

Welcome to the mythic world of Son of Town Hall, the unusual union of Ben Parker of London, England, and David Berkeley of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Parker, a London-based songwriter /producer/multi-instrumentalist, and Berkeley, a celebrated singer/songwriter/guitarist/author/ auteur, have created a buoyant narrative that transcends time and space, complete with tenement-era imaging that one can feast eyes upon in real time, should you be lucky enough to catch one of their rare performances.

Son Of Town Hall springboards from the story of the aforementioned two finding themselves side by side aboard a junk raft crossing the mighty Atlantic in search of new lands, new inspiration and to recover squandered fortune. It’s as if the two sailed their ship back a century or so. The presentation is at once completely transporting and utterly hilarious. Neither Berkeley, nor Parker openly acknowledge the anachronistic quality in their songs or presentation. They do, however, recognize how special their sound is. “Perhaps it was the salt spray in our beards,” Parker explains when we caught up with the two of them on the coast of Maine, “or maybe the solitude out there on the open ocean. Hell, we didn’t see another soul for the better part of a month. But we learned to sing out there. More importantly, we learned to sing together.” And sing together they do, harmonies that haven’t been heard, perhaps, since the Louvin Brothers. “You learn a lot on the high seas,” Berkeley adds. “You can’t count on a whole lot. My guitar ultimately was down to just four strings, and none stayed in tune. But we developed a blend and a sound that we knew was something special. We just had to hope that it would translate on dry land.”

Recommended